Funding allocation for Highland schools: FOI release

Information requested

Information regarding the funding allocation for:
- Golspie High School
- Wick High School
- Thurso High School
- Dornoch Academy
- Farr High School

This was to include:
- The per pupil funding allocation for listed schools.
- The total allocation of funding per school stated.
- How this compares to the national average per pupil funding allocation.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have all the information you have requested. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have all the information you have requested. The reasons why we do not have this information are explained below.

The Scottish Government does not have all the information you have asked for because the Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of the revenue funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on Education, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority how it manages its day-to-day business and decision making processes.

Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities.

Therefore, in this instance, you may wish to contact individual local authorities who may be able to help you.

Although Scottish Government do not hold all purpose school-level spending figures (and in turn the funding allocations per pupil), the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates the Scottish average spend per pupil in 2019/20 was £7,300. For more information, please see their report:
https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/15025.

Where the Scottish Government have allocated funding directly to the aforementioned schools, this has been via Pupil Equity Funding and the Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme.

The Scottish Government allocates funding directly to schools to help close the poverty related attainment gap via Pupil Equity Funding.

Pupil Equity Funding allocations to the aforementioned schools for both 2020-21 and 2021-22 are as follows:

Pupil Equity Funding - School Level Funding 2020-21

Local Authority	School	Stage	Allocation based on estimated FSM pupils 2020-2021	Top-up	2020-21 Total Allocation including Top-up
Highland	Dornoch Academy	Secondary	£12,923	£ -	£12,923
Highland	Farr High School	Secondary	*	*	*
Highland	Golspie High School	Secondary	£23,496	£ -	£23,496
Highland	Thurso High School	Secondary	£55,216	£ -	£55,216
Highland	Wick High School	Secondary	£68,138	£ -	£68,138

Pupil Equity Funding - School Level Funding 2021-22

Local Authority	School	Stage	Allocation based on estimated FSM pupils 2021-22	Top-up	2021-22 Total Allocation including Top-up
Highland	Dornoch Academy	Secondary	£13,477	£ -	£13,477
Highland	Farr High School	Secondary	*	*	*
Highland	Golspie High School	Secondary	£24,504	£ -	£24,504
Highland	Thurso High School	Secondary	£57,584	£ -	£57,584
Highland	Wick High School	Secondary	£71,062	£ -	£71,062

* For schools where revealing the allocation level may be disclosive to individuals, their results have been redacted and replaced with a *. Headteachers from these schools can contact their local authority for details of their allocation level.

For further information on Pupil Equity Funding allocations in the current and next academic years please see: https://www.gov.scot/publications/pupil-equity-funding-school-allocations-2020-to-2021/ and https://www.gov.scot/publications/pupil-equity-funding-school-allocations-2021-to-2022/.

Through the Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme, Highland Council receives funding from the Scottish Government for Wick Campus, which contains Wick High School. Annual funding is ongoing, with instalments paid and scheduled as follows:

Financial Year Ending	Contract Year	Total SG Contribution to Annual Service Payment (£)
31 March 2015	1	-
31 March 2016	2	-
31 March 2017	3	2,143,582.75
31/03/2018 to 31/03/2041	4 to 27	4,068,500.19 per annum
31 March 2042	28	1,941,277.41
TOTAL SG Contribution		101,728,864.70

All stated amounts are exclusive of VAT.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.